Chapter 2 Redemption

The boy woke up and started to cry, the scene which he saw the other night got stuck in his head, "Mom , Dad , brother...", he cried hard as he could, the pain of the wound added more grief to his cry. 

The old man pitied the boy. After three days and even after announcing that the boy was alive , none of his relatives came to visit him. After digging deep into the family, they found that he was an orphan who had been adopted when he was three. The boy had no one else left to live. The old man could see it in his eyes that he had lost his will to live.

He didn't know what to do but he knew he couldn't leave the kid alone, so he did something no one would have done, 

"Hey kid do you want to live with me?, I live in the mountains ,but I can take care of you and send you to scho...." , before he could finish his sentence the kid hugged him and started to cry again, "Than...k yo..u", the kid cried in a broken voice.

The old man consoled him and signed the papers to take him home. The kid was seven years old , it was a pretty hard incident on him it could traumatize him for life , but just because the old man showed him love he trusted him. 

Abandoned by parents at birth, lost his adopted parents , and now adopted by an old man, the kid had really experienced the cruelty and the flow of life at a young age, he had become a bit mature other than kids his age.

The old man told the kid to hop on his bike and they made it back , luckily the rust bucket still was usable.

The old man took him to his house through the trail, the trail was a rugged road only the old man could drive so smoothly up the way to his home. It was filled with trees and rocks were filling some parts of the road. But he didn't experience any bumps in the side car when the old man drove it.

The old man knew the kid's name when he signed the papers but he still wanted to hear it from him, "What is your name kid?"

"Alex Hammer , May I know your name grandpa?", the kid replied in a squeaky voice. 

The moment he heard the kid call him grandpa , he was overjoyed, This old man didn't have anyone to call him dad because his wife was unable to conceive, but being called a grandpa when he was seventy maybe God really had a reason to let him live this long.

"You can call me grandpa John, Alex!", the old man replied while speeding up the bike trying to hide his teary eyes.

The moment the bike reached John's home , Alex felt weirdly good , the gentle and cool breeze and the fresh atmosphere around him livened him up.

John didn't eat properly for three whole days he managed it barely with water , bread and some yam he had bought from a shop, He just couldn't tolerate the outside food , he was hungry for meat and today he felt it was time for some venison. 

It was almost time for lunch, not the best time to hunt, but he had no other choice but to hunt one , he had to take care of Alex too , so atleast he had to hunt down three rabbits or it was going to be just fruits from trees and rice which he had brought at a store after a very long time . John grew most of the spices and crops at home , but rice needed a lot of time to grow and he had to harvest it nearly a month later. He returned home once in the middle of three days just to water his plants and find something to eat , but he was just worried that he went back to the hospital.

"Alex would you mind staying in for some time , I would catch something for us to eat", John said with a smile opening the door to his home.

"Catch something to eat?",Alex asked with a childish face for he has never had to catch anything to eat , you can get everything from shops.

John went on to explain how he had to hunt something and make food. Alex was vested into what grandpa John said, "Grandpa can I come with you", he didn't hesitate to ask for some reason even though he was seven he knew in his heart that it was something that will be useful for him and he was a bit afraid that grandpa John will leave him to hunted by a wild animal.

"You just came out the hospital, take a week of rest I will teach you everything you need to know and don't worry nothing will happen to me , I have been doing this for years", said John and picked up his new bow and arrows , along with his sword and a dagger from a place where he had kept his equipment for hunting.

Alex felt assured by what John said and looked at his grandpa with gleaming eyes ,"Why do you need a sword grandpa?", he asked without any hesitation.

"Every equipment has its use ,I will teach you everything", Alex was smiling at John as he waving goodbye to him as John went out into the forest.

John saw something in the boy's eyes when he left ,it was a fire , a fire to learn , a fire to devour , a will to live.

John searched an hour , but he couldn't get any traces of deer or any other animals, he started his search again this time he got traces of a boar , a pretty big wild boar.... he slowly followed the traces and found the boar. He took out an arrow from his quiver , loaded it and shot an arrow straight at the boar's head. The boar moved just in the nick of time and the arrow lodged into its neck.

The boar was startled , but turned around and saw John and John was looking at it as if he was anticipating it.

The boar started a run and started to rush towards John , The boar was thirty meters away from John and he looked at it straight with not a single movement except for the fact that he had ditched his bow and had a sword in his hand . 

As the boar rushed at him ,he moved a step to the side and swung the sword at his full strength at the boar, and the sword cut the boar's head as if it was made out of butter.

It fell on the ground with a thud along with its body lifeless. In a single strike he ended the life of a boar. 

"I wish he was here to see it", John smiled while he thought about Alex as he had found something which was better than what he wanted.